Earlier today, in association with neighbouring accredited Chambers of Commerce, representing the business communities of Hampshire and Surrey, Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce (TVCC) hosted a business roundtable on the Industrial Strategy.
Chris Parker, chair of TVCC’s Thames Valley Assembly, welcomed senior representatives from the Department for Business and Trade’s Industrial Strategy Unit. The DBT team are actively engaging businesses, through the Chamber network, on the key themes from the Invest 2035 green paper consultation, launched October 2024, as they shape the next stage white paper and an ‘Investment Plan for Britain’.
With over 30,000 responses submitted, including TVCC’s, the Industrial Strategy is a central pillar of the Government’s wider growth missions, framed by a commitment to a 10-year plan to deliver certainty and stability, the Thames Valley Assembly members heard. DBT outlined the emerging list of policy themes coming out of the consultation.
Informed by the Chambers business engagement and policy work, these included many which have already been identified and picked up during the roundtable, including:
- Need for greater policy stability and removing uncertainty
- Government investment in key sectors best able to drive growth, and the importance of fostering innovation to differentiate the UK
- Access to finance, particularly start-up looking to scale
- Inadequate infrastructure, most notably access to power supplies (e.g. electricity) and the importance of having energy infrastructure aligned with economic growth plans
- Resolving barriers to trade and closer trading relationship with EU
- Supply chain vulnerabilities
- Fostering innovation and looking at the opportunities that differentiate the UK. Financial incentives for R&D driven innovation.
- Skills shortages (including commercial) and access to talent and talent mobility
- Regulation and providing structures that are effective, efficient and provide certainty to business.
In advance of the business roundtable, TVCC submitted a sector specific response, by invitation of the DBT, on Health and Life Sciences.
Comments from those attending include:
Willie Coetzee, Director, Government Relations and Business Development, Honeywell: “Today’s business round table and the open dialogue was a good example of how industry is actively supporting government objectives and strategy. With government increasingly taking a more hands-on approach in several sectors, including energy, effective two-way partnership is more critical than ever.”
Professor Robert Van de Noort, Vice-Chancellor University of Reading: “This was a really useful opportunity to hear directly from the Department of Business and Trade on the emerging new industrial strategy and to feed back on key issues such as energy supply and connectivity issues that risk stifling economic growth in the Thames Valley and beyond. I am grateful to the TVCC for organising and enabling this discussion.”
Professor Sarah Williams, Head of School of Business and Law at Buckinghamshire New University: “Thank you to TVCC. It was great to observe the government in listening mode, taking on board concerns from organisations across the region, particularly related to European cooperation, infrastructure, and digital capacity. I look forward to seeing positive results from the consultation”.
Jonny Haseldine, Policy Manager, British Chambers of Commerce: “It was great to support this gathering of Chambers of Commerce from the Southeast to feedback their views to government on the challenges and opportunities presented by the forthcoming Industrial Strategy. The region is home to a number of key sectors which are vital to the UK’s push for economic growth.”
Louise Punter, Chief Executive of Surrey Chambers of Commerce commented: “A focus on supporting SMEs to scale and be productive is vital for growth. Most particularly, we want to see emphasis placed enabling SME’s to most effectively utilise artificial intelligence to drive productivity growth. AI is a cross-cutting theme that is shaping all businesses, whatever their size, across all sectors. We call on government to ensure AI adoption is not seen as a barrier to growth and investment”.
Ross McNally, Executive Chair of Hampshire Chamber of Commerce stated, “We call on government to support and invest in the ‘powerhouse’ sectors that the south and central region, that covers the Thames Valley, Hampshire, and Surrey. Most particularly we have an established, world leading, ‘tech super-cluster’, that covers many sectors (creative, advanced manufacture and engineering, maritime, aerospace, defence, life sciences, green-tech), which should be a central component of any long-term plan for growth for the UK”.
Paul Britton, Chief Executive of Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce, covering Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, and Swindon adds, “If the government is prioritising high growth and strategic sectors it needs to be talking to TVCC and the businesses in the Thames Valley region. Of the eight ‘growth sectors’ identified in the Industrial Strategy, we can confidently state that six are truly world leading and represented in our region”.
Chris Parker, Chair of the Thames Valley Assembly, in his concluding remarks comments: “We have been consistently calling on government to ‘invest in success’ and recognise the importance of the Thames Valley as an integral part of its growth mission, driving economic growth and delivering many of the solutions identified in the Strategy. Our health and life sciences working group, key account management programme and centre of excellence in trade are three – ready to go programmes we lead – that are ready to scale”.
The TVCC Thames Valley Assembly brings together the most senior business membership and thought leaders across identified key sectors. T
To learn more contact SarahIrving@tvchamber.co.uk
